U2

On Friday night we went to see U2 play at Croke Park here in Dublin. I'd say it would be tough to argue there is a bigger rock band in the world and the endurance of their music speaks for itself. They put on an amazing live show on a weird War of the Worlds type stage. It is great to see all their energy and excitement even now in their 50's. Getting to see them in Dublin certainly goes down as a highlight of the time we've been here.

Here are some pics from the show.

New shirt

While we were in Bergen we noticed a T-shirt shop that had some funny sayings. One was in my slide show regarding their taste for whale meat. I picked this one up and wore it yesterday. I'm sure it was shocking for people to know there was an evil capitalist among them.

Norway

We arrived back from Norway on Tuesday both having seen one of the most beautiful countries in Europe and having closed on our new house. What a day!! Dana has a nice slideshow on her blog of the new casa. It's very exciting to be back in the rhelm of home ownership. Now if we could only live in it.

Norway was beautiful. Here are the pictures. They start in Oslo which was a very modern clean city. We visited a sculpture park which had over 100 nude sculptures that were...strange. We also went to a viking museum and the Kon-Tiki museum, which has boats constructed in "old world" styles and used to cross the Atlantic and Pacific to show it was possible for cultures to interact long before Columbus or any other European adventure. We then boarded a train for the West coast. The train ride took us through some beautiful countryside. When we arrived in a town called Flam we got on a boat that took us through Sandefjord and down the coast to Bergen. Bergan was another amazing city. It was more what I expected Norway to look like with peaked roofs and colorful buildings. All together is was a very enjoyable trip even though it was really expensive. They have a 25% tax on everything and even more on alcohol and tabacco. It was strange that during Norway's high tourist season it was not very busy which I suppose is partly due to the expense.

Climate continued...

I've just read an addition to the continuing and growing climate change debate which has shown it is really a showdown between observational science vs. consensus science. Under President Bush there was an outcry by libs and greens that he was censoring those in his administration who spoke out in favor of man-made global warming. This came mainly from Jim Hanson, a NASA scientist, who while being "censored" by President Bush, managed to give several hundred speeches on the topic. It became such a hot topic that when Obama was elected he vowed that "the days of science taking a back seat to ideology are over." His new EPA director picked up the mantra and promised to base policies on science and provide overwhelming transparency.

Enter Alan Carlin. Mr. Carlin works in the EPA's Environmental Economics division and wrote an analysis questioning the EPA's science of man-made global warming in response to the Obama attempt to circumvent congress on the issue by declaring carbon (that element which is the scientific definition of whether something is "organic") a pollutant thereby giving the EPA the power to regulate it. The response to Mr. Carlin's report was what could best be described as a gag order by is superiors. The plight of Mr. Carlin has been picked up by Republicans who want an investigation. The EPA has now switched its efforts to discrediting Mr. Carlin as a "denier" and "only an economist" (though he does hold a degree in physics from a little place called CalTech!).

I can see all this playing out in some sci-fi movie where we all have to pay fines for being polluters because we exhale too much CO2 or perhaps some justification for Chinese-esk population control to protect the "mother earth" from all of us "unnatural beings."

Travelling on

Many of you know that we are going to Norway next weekend and visiting Oslo and taking a train through Sognefjord. It looks really beautiful and I'm very excited to go. We just booked our next really big trip that will be our most exotic trip to date. We're heading to Egypt and Jordan in September for a 9 day tour. It looks like it'll be an amazing adventure. We'll probably have more info as we get closer to the date but for now here is the tour description.

"the worst scientific scandal in history"

The weather conditions among climate change policy makers seems to be in a turbulent free fall. The WSJ has a nice op-ed piece documenting the current state of affairs which I'll try to summarize. Politicians around the world are backtracking and downright repealing new green laws that have been touted as necessities via every media and left wing news outlet. Evidently the "science" behind man-driven global warming is not as undeniable as we were once led to believe. In fact, nearly 700 scientists from geology to physics and meteorology have publicly criticized the U.N. climate summery for policy makers. Countries including Australia, Poland, Czech Republic and even France are now having their climate policies driven by anti-consensus scientists. As the global criticism to crippling economic policies to fund green programs grows, more people are speaking up and the media and politicians like Obama will find it harder to silence the dissent.

Birth...day

It is true that I have recently been elevated into my 30's against my will. I got stuck at work most of the day but the main excitement came when I got my present from Dana. We are going to do a wine tour in the Chianti Classico region of Tuscany. The tour includes vineyards and wineries at a castle and a 13th century village. I can't wait to make another trip to Italy which is by far my favorite country in Europe.

Thanks a million my dear!

What's next?

Funny (not funny ha, ha) story in the WSJ about how Christler execs are already getting around the rules set up for their "bailout."

"The new Chrysler-Fiat partnership will get around U.S. restrictions on executive pay by having its top officers deemed Fiat employees," the Detroit Free Press reports:

The new Chrysler is among the first companies to fall under rules outlined in February by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, for companies getting "extraordinary assistance" from the Treasury that would cap pay for top executives at $500,000, excluding restricted shares of stock. The final rules for the limits have not been released. . . .

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has already indicated he will replace Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli. But under the deal, any of Chrysler's top officers can be deemed a Fiat employee who's "seconded" to Chrysler, and therefore take pay from Fiat beyond any Treasury cap.

In our view, this whole deal is an abomination. The government should not be bailing out Chrysler or its unions; if it cannot make cars profitably, it belongs in bankruptcy court.
That said, we have to admire the Chrysler execs' sense of humor in using Fiat to evade a fiat.

Prague

This is the first of 2 slide shows I plan to make from our most recent trip. We were in what I would consider the most Eastern part of Western Europe, Prague. It was a beautiful city that had a sort of eerie charm not unlike Edinburgh. We started by visiting the castle which over looks the city. It was more of a compound of buildings that contained a large cathedral that looked as if it was the oldest part of the "castle" complex. We visited the old town square which has the Astronomical Clock and the John Hus memorial. We crossed the Charles' Bridge and explored the city. We went in several of the cathedrals, one of which contained the withered arm and clenched fist of a would be thief who tried to steal the statue of Mary hanging as a reminder (or warning). See if you can pick out that picture. It was not as cheap as we had hoped it would be but we still had a great time.

United

On Wednesday night I was invited to go up to Manchester for the semi-final 1st leg of the Champion's League between Man. United and Arsenal. Of course I said I had to think about it and 1.2 seconds later I was making arrangements to get out of work and head to Manchester. I am a United supporter and would be ecstatic to go to any game and a chance to go to a Champions League game, especially against Arsenal in the knock out stage is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Both teams of course played their first 11 and watching them live was amazing. United won 1 - 0 and should of scored 2 or 3 more in a very exciting match. I know most of you could care less about soccer but if you are ever interested, the next leg is on Tuesday at 7:45pm my time (mid day in the U.S.). It is a very good representation of what soccer should look like and you will see some of the best players in the world.

Treats!

The goodies have arrived! These photos are not the best but you get the idea. Don't be jealous.

Visitation and Vacation

We are finally seeing our first visitors of the year tomorrow. Jamie and Steven (my sister-in-law and her husband) are coming to see us for the first time. We are turning around almost immediately and skipping out of Ireland for the Czech Republic and Austria for about 5 days. I'm excited because it feels like we are heading to a new part of the world and we haven't been any where in a while; well, since last month anyway. It is always nice to have travel companions and I'm sure that we'll have a really good time.

They were also nice enough to bring a little shipment of goodies along with them.

Trinidad EMS robustos x 8
Perdomo En Vidrio rothschilds x 10
Partagas Black bravos x 10
La Gloria Cubana charlemagne x 10
Gurkha Rare Breed robustos x 5

JR Cigars is having amazing sales right now so if anyone is interested in such things you should definitely take advantage now! I'll be posting pictures of these beauties tomorrow!!

Belgium

I'm trying to catch up on my blogging and I've finally made it to Belgium which was a few weeks ago. We flew into Brussels and then took the train to Bruges where we spent a day and a half and then spent the last day in Brussels before we flew back home. It really was a weekend trip and I don't think we could have found more to do there had we stayed longer. I really liked Bruges. It is a combination of quaint gothic with the Flemish architecture popping out all over the place. There are chocolate shops galore and the only other thing Belgians take as seriously as chocolate is beer. We weren't crazy about the beer but it was cheap and plentiful. There are canals criss-crossing the city and we were able to take a boat tour, which gave us a different perspective of the city. We did a tour of the only remaining brewery in Bruges. The tour guide was excellent and we really enjoyed that. We even got to go on the roof and take a couple of photos of the city scape. We saw Michelangelo's only sculpture to leave Italy in the cathedral in town and found a cigar bar where I had a nice Ramon Allones Habana.

We went to Brussels for our last day and were less impressed with it. The Grand Palace was a beautiful square surrounded by gothic buildings. We walked around the city and saw some of the other buildings but other than that there didn't seem like much to see or do. Belgium was a good trip and I'm glad we made it there but I don't think we'll be heading back any time soon.

Florence, Italy

We visited Florence during our Venice trip and were glad we did. The city doesn't hold the charm of Venice but it is strikingly Italian and it was great to see the area where so many great minds including Michelangelo and Da Vinci came from. The city is built around their large cathedral called the Duomo. From the outside it is massive and built of white and green marble. You can see from the pictures that it just towers above the rest of the city. Inside it is surprisingly small. There is a large river (where we actually saw an otter swimming) that separates the main part of town from the hills where the old city wall is still visible. The main bridge, Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), is lined with jewelry shops. We hiked up the hill overlooking the city with a copper replica of Michelangelo's David standing atop it. The views of the city were amazing.

There are no shortage of museums to visit there either. The first we went to was the History of Science museum. Unfortunately much of is was under construction so we could wander around one floor. There they had several of the first models of the solar system and the telescopes used through history. It even had Galileo's Finger! We visited the famous Uffizi Gallery which contains the largest collection of the Renaissance art. The highlight of Florence was without question going to the Accademia gallery and seeing Michelangelo's David. The gallery contains a few other works including some unfinished statues by Michelangelo where were neat to see how they came to be from a block of marble. The David was breathtaking. His sheer size is impressive enough but the detail in the facial expression and even the veins in his arm are amazing. I haven't seen anything else like it and of course we couldn't take any photos. As Dana says, it shows what a mockery the "modern art" movement really is when compared with true artistic genius.

Florence is a must visit simply for its historical significance. I think Venice will beckon us back some day just because the city is such a wonder in and of itself. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the land of the man himself. Although the celebration is not nearly the scale of NY or Boston it is still a fun event. We probably saw more Americans here today than we have since we moved. We went out for an early lunch then found the Early Show from NBC doing a live broadcast from Dublin Castle. We stayed for that and then found a spot near Christ Church to watch the parade. There are participants from all over the world and I even saw the Arizona flag flying...REPRESENT! Here's a few pictures from our day.

The Soiree

We went to a cigar soiree Monday night at a wine bar here in Dublin. The evening included tapas, wine, single malt Irish whiskey and of course cigars. It was really a great atmosphere as about 50 guys showed up to take part leaving Dana as the only girl in the bunch (which made me very proud!). We met several interesting people including 2 ex-marines and a few Dubliners. We were given a Diplimaticos Habanas and a Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve. I must say that they were both excellent and I feel like we really got value for our money, which is quite odd for Dublin. I can't wait until the next one. We'll see if any of the guys went home and told their wives that there are women who attend so Dana won't be so out numbered next time.

Venezia

Bonjourno! I know we've been back from Italy for a while now but it is always on the mind. Venice was especially beautiful. I had heard that countless times but you really can't appreciate the spectacle that the city is until you've seen it for yourself. It was once one of the richest cities in Europe and the Grand Canal ("main street") is lined with palaces. The architecture is somewhat unique in that not only is it built on water but most of it is from the Byzantine period and looks like a combination of European and Middle Eastern styles. As far as giving a true feel of what the city looked like, our pictures fail miserably. It doesn't help that in a lot of the places you go into in both Venice and Florence you are not allowed to take photographs. We think they're afraid we'll steal their essence!

We spent our time wandering semi-lost through the narrow streets finding on more than one occasion that the street we were on dead ended into a canal. We took a gondola ride and had to help our gondolier tilt the boat to make it under the low, slowly sinking bridges on the side streets. It was nearly Carnival so the stores were packed with masks and outfits for the 10 day long celebration. We found Venice to be a city that isn't visited for its sights and attractions but just for the city itself. I hope we get to go back! Ciao!

Back to reality

We have returned home and we're still trying to settle back into life after our surprise visit to the old AZ. It was such a good trip getting to see everyone and enjoy a few days of sunshine and warm weather. It is even more missed as I am writing during the first snow Dublin city has seen in the last 7 years (lucky us!). We are leaving for Italy in 2 days which means good food and good wine and hopefully better weather.
Thanks to everyone for making time to hang with us on absolutely no notice. Surprise visits probably aren't the best idea for the future but this one sure was fun. Happy birthday Yunuen! We hope to see all of you real soon!

Prego!

I think we've pretty much shouted this one from the roof tops so it probably isn't news to anyone but we got really great tickets to Venice/Florence in a couple of weeks. AerLingus was having a mad sale. Not only that but we found great places to stay for 1/2 to 1/3 the price of their normal room rates. We're pretty used to staying in budget places and blowing our money on the sites and food so I totally feel like we're splurging. We're staying 2 nights in Venice then taking a train over and spending 2 nights in Florence. We'll report back after we've got lots of photos to make you jealous with! In the meantime, check out our hotels (Venice/Florence).

Dude!

This might be the craziest thing I've ever seen. Click the link to watch these guys gliding in wingsuits. My favorite part is when the guy is talking about what they were doing and says they got "bored." Awesome!